PORT JERVIS — Community activists are growing impatient with the state Department of Health as they wait for a decision on whether Bon Secours Community Hospital may close its maternity ward.
State Department of Health spokesman Peter Constantakes said last week that a recommendation on the fate of the maternity ward would likely not come until July 26, when the department's Establishment and Project Review Committee meets in Latham.

Constantakes said if the recommendation isn't in favor of closing the ward, the decision would likely go to Public Health and Health Planning Council on Aug. 9 for a final decision.
Jim McMahon, an activist fighting to keep the maternity ward open, said the community was expecting a recommendation by May 31, but none came.
"They've been playing three-card monte," said McMahon.
In October 2011, Bon Secours submitted an application to the state requesting to decertify eight maternity beds and decertify the hospital's inpatient obstetrics service. The application said they've developed a transition plan to continue services with St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick and Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown.
McMahon said closing down the maternity ward will have the worst effect on low-income residents of Port Jervis.
"There's a significant population in Port Jervis that doesn't have the means to go to ORMC or St. Anthony," said McMahon.
Emergency room nurses and doctors at Bon Secours have also voiced concern that a lack of a trained obstetrical nurses during a complicated birth could be risky.
In documents submitted to the state, the hospital cited a declining birth rate and an older population of women who can't give birth as reasons to shut down the ward. They said the 174 deliveries from September 2010 to August 2011 didn't meet the department's "preferred threshold" of 600 annual deliveries.
Constantakes said the department doesn't have a set figure for deliveries, but looks at each case individually.
jnani@th-record.com